Immanuel Quickley & Brandon Ingram star as Raptors crush Bucks
It’s been a good long while since the Raptors have been a strong offensive squad. It largely stems from their inability to shoot the ball well consistently, and somewhat connectedly, their lack of live dribble creation. They’ve had a couple years where they’re passable on catch and shoot looks, but that never coincides with pull up prominence. This year, even with the Brandon Ingram buffer, and even with Immanuel Quickley playing a lot of games, they’re still very poor in the latter department. So, as they looked to matchup against the Giannis Antetkounmpo-less Bucks, they had far less defensive questions to answer, but offensive ones remained – especially with Scottie Barnes out in this one.
Ingram was doubled on the first possession of the game, and a whole bunch of possessions throughout. It was pretty clear the Bucks wanted to move the ball elsewhere, and that bet was paying off in spades early on as the Raptors couldn’t buy a make – even though they were generally open because of the attention that Ingram was receiving. The Raptors had to prove some things elsewhere before the game could open up for their All-Star.
Emboldened by all this, the Bucks started throwing zone at the Raptors. So, the Raptors were forced to invert some of the classic zone principles we’re used to seeing. Why not, right? They’re the third worst team in the NBA in terms of scoring against zone, they see it the third most often. Try something new. So, instead of going classic with the big man flashing middle and having guards whirl around looking for cracks, they swapped the roles between front court and back court. Jamal Shead sliding middle, drawing the attention of Bobby Portis — who is much, much larger — and Sandro Mamukelashvili wheeling off of a flare from Ingram. New looks, and a welcome change.
“What the Raptors can also do is tether Quickley to a hopefully healthy Poeltl. Quickley has seen his pick n’ roll volume dwindle this year as the Raptors have other mouths to feed, but he deserves a lot of credit for slowly creeping up his efficiency over the duration of the season. A Quickley pnr possession has pumped out 1.072 points per possession this season, which is in the top 20-percent of NBA players who run them.”
Speaking of change, Jakob Poeltl hit the starting lineup once again. We should all know what that means for Immanuel Quickley, who the Raptors have to be able to rely upon in a game like this (or any game for that matter). Poeltl was available to help carve out more room for Quickley or to create outright switches for him to attack. That was just for a start. It got to a point in the second quarter where Quickley became, far and away, the most important player for the Raptors in the second quarter. Not only was he scoring the ball well, but his motion and coverage was the greatest point of tension for the Bucks defense. They had a great deal of trouble keeping up with him, and he, more than anyone else was responsible for dragging the Raptors from a paltry 22 point quarter to a 38 point one. A huge turnaround that sent the Raptors into halftime with a 9-point lead.
Also, three point variance is a thing, and the Raptors going 0-11 before going 8-12, that’s the name of the game.
After the Bucks made a short run to start the third quarter, Coach Darko went to an old friend – the two point guard lineup.
A nearly 90th percentile point differential behemoth that turns other teams over at a rapid pace, rarely turns the ball over themselves, and typically does a decent job of creating looks? Well, it helped the Raptors as they stiff armed the Bucks. More shot making from Quickley, some playmaking in general from Shead. Uber small with Ja’Kobe Walter playing the 3, so Shead & Walter could pressure both Rollins and Porter Jr. while keeping Quickley comfortably off ball. A front court of Ingram and Mamu. By the end of the third quarter the point guards had combined for 37 points and 12 assists on 1 turnover (27 & 6 for Quickley and 10 & 6 for Shead).
All the while, the Raptors defense remained quite stellar. The lifeblood of the Bucks offense early on was push shots and fairly brilliant live dribble shot making from the likes of Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas, but that didn’t last. When the ball was funnelled elsewhere, it died. The Raptors were obviously quite involved in the killing of the ball. They maintained a few of the hallmarks of their elite defense; chasing teams through the whole length of the shot clock, full closeouts, a significant motor from guys 1-5, and in this case a knuckleball of Poeltl to gum up the lane with more size. Coach Darko has his guys locked in and playing with a level of intensity that can border on suffocation.
Both Ingram & Quickley deserve the lion’s share of the credit for this one. Of course it’s a team game and everyone chips in, but the Raptors two leaders in this one were particularly good. During the sprint to the end of this season the Raptors will be hoping for more out of this duo. That’s not to say they weren’t important through the pre-All-Star portion of the season, just that this roster is designed to get a little more out of them. In this one they were both plenty resilient in shouldering the offensive load. They took the hard shots, did the hard things, and offloaded the easy stuff onto their teammates who are lower on the totem pole. That’s a great combination of things for creating good offense. On a Sunday afternoon against the Bucks, the both of them struck the perfect balance.
A professional win and one that came without Barnes in the lineup. A really nice game for the Raptors. A great, great game for Quickley in particular.
Have a blessed day.
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